Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment release new video paying homage to Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used to Know'

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment have released another video paying homage to a pop great, this time featuring an aria from Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur, sung by baritone Dingle Yandell.

Inspired by Gotye’s hit stop-motion music video Somebody that I used to know, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) continue to bend and challenge genre with their interpretation of Purcell’s ‘What Power Art Thou’ from King Arthur.

"The music is from Purcell's opera King Arthur. They often call it the Frost Scene - "What Power art thou, who from below....". The Cold Genius (a character in the opera) is reluctantly being awoken from his hibernation by Cupid. You can hear the music thawing as Cold Genius is himself thawing. You can hear his sharp chattering teeth. You can hear this disembodied cold voice."

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment have paired Dingle Yandell's performance of The Frost Scene with Goyte's Somebody That I Used to Know, drawing on the same visual techniques used in that video, and mimicking it in their rendition of the aria from King Arthur.

Gotye’s Somebody that I used to know depicts a failed relationship and the heart-wrenching aftermath of two people who once were in love now becoming strangers in each other’s lives.

As the video progresses, Gotye is slowly subsumed by body paint and eventually fades into the background of a canvas. An optical illusion is created where it is hard to tell where the background begins and his body ends. The lyrics of Gotye’s song tie in with this visual metaphor, as he laments ‘you didn’t need to cut me out’ and ‘make out like the relationship never happened’. Quite literally, Gotye’s identity has been lost as he becomes a part of his surroundings.

The Frost Scene in Purcell’s King Arthur portrays a supernatural vision of the winter chill. The aria ‘What Power Art Thou’ is sung as Cupid awakens the ‘Cold Genius’, the Spirit of Winter. As he defrosts, the spirit lambasts Cupid’s spell as he shivers and ‘can scarcely move or draw his breath.’ The cold encompasses him and he wishes to ‘freeze again to death’ and return to what is safe and familiar.

The video was originally shot before March 2020 as part of the OAE's Rising Stars scheme of which Dingle, like Helen Charlston who featured in the OAE's Coldplay homage, is a participant. But the timing of the release of the video over a year later has the added poignancy as the country emerges from lockdown.

"One of the things that I've really thought about is the fact that with a pandemic, creativity has been somewhat quashed, or at least, the industry has been suppressed and stagnated. And there isn't much creativity going on and a little bit of unknown and to suddenly have it reappear. When the video was edited it was really, really wonderful to see.

"It's cutting edge creativity. To me this is about something we've missed, something people want. It's a nice symbol of what coming out of lockdown is for some people, in a similar way to the way the Cold Genius is coming out of hibernation."

• orchestra of the age of enlightenment